If Everything Made Sense
by brazenbell
Summary: X.A.N.A., whatever that stands for, takes over the new army base five miles outside of Kadic. Yeah, that would totally happen. Season One, Rated M for LANGUAGE ONLY


"Students," announced Principal Delmas, "I am pleased to announce that the French military has chosen to build its newly commissioned fort on our empty lot. As you might imagine, close proximity to a military fort will greatly increase the safety quotient of our beloved school and, as a consequence, our admissions rates and prestige. The base is being built five miles west of campus; I trust that you will all keep out of the way, as I need not remind you that the construction process and military equipment can be very dangerous."

Odd shouted, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

The auditorium grew quiet. Sissi sniffed. The principal frowned. "Excuse me, Mr. Della Robbia?"

"This is a middle school! What the hell made that seem like a good idea? Have you told our parents about this?"

"Mr. Della Robbia, I assure you we have taken the greatest safety precautions, and provided you don't go wandering off looking for trouble –"

Odd snorted.

"He's right, Mr. Delmas," Ulrich said. "Can't they build their base somewhere else?"

"No," the principal retorted, a little bitterly. "Kadic is right on the border with Belgium."

* * *

"Calm down, Odd," Yumi said later, as they all loafed about in Jérémie's room. "Maybe X.A.N.A. will leave us alone for once."

"Yeah, and maybe Ulrich will go out with Sissi!"

Yumi was not amused.

"Why does this shit always happen?" Odd whined. "Look, I'm all for going to virtual worlds and killing monsters and stuff, but really. Think about it! This place is crazy! They built a nuclear power plant right in the middle of town; they let us play around with million-dollar nanobots in science class; a world-famous movie director showed up with a giant gunk-spitting monster; they left barrels of laughing gas in the lab – I mean, come on! They're just _asking_ for it!"

"They don't know, Odd."

"And you, Yumi, bringing samurai armor into the school! What were you thinking?"

"It was for a project!"

"Anyway, X.A.N.A. – whatever that stands for – never leaves us alone."

"I guess we'll just have to keep our guards up," Jérémie said. "I'll tell Aelita to keep her eyes out for anything strange on Lyoko."

"If by 'strange' you mean an activated tower," Ulrich said glumly, "and that isn't strange at all, anymore."

* * *

But military forts take a long time to build, and for a while all was quiet. Surprisingly, X.A.N.A. left the construction equipment alone. "I guess it's because he's already tried attacking us with bulldozers and that didn't work," Ulrich said reasonably.

Jérémie muttered, "There are wrecking balls, too," but X.A.N.A. didn't seem to have any interest in those, either.

Of course, there were still attacks. One night, during the construction, Yumi and Ulrich sneaked onto the half-built fort because Ulrich "wanted to look at the machines," and of course they got caught and wound up in an enormous amount of trouble. But then X.A.N.A. fucked up some computers or something and Jérémie turned back time and everything was okay.

"So, didja figure out how to work Yumi's machine?" Odd snickered later. Ulrich kicked him in the shins. Odd spluttered. "Hey! You could've just said no!"

Another time, X.A.N.A. sprayed pesticides all over the school and nearly smothered everyone; then he caused the pumpkins in the school garden to grow to a monstrous size and they rolled about trying to crush people. The team handled both of these problems with relative ease, and the pumpkins were actually pretty funny. Ulrich burst out laughing when he spotted them (until they started rolling toward him), and Odd tacked a drawing of Hervé being crushed by a pumpkin on the wall.

And then, the day after France finally finished moving half of its equipment into this tiny nobody town on the Belgian border, all of the guns in the base went off at once.

The classrooms rumbled.

"Here we go," groaned Ulrich.

Yumi came pounding up to them in the hallway after class and said, "Hey, guys, did you hear that?"

"Mm-hm."

"Do you think X.A.N.A. could be behind it?"

"Of course X.A.N.A.'s behind it," Odd practically screeched. "What's wrong with you people?"

They stared at him. Ulrich shrugged. Yumi gave a little nose-wrinkle of distaste. Jérémie shrugged and mumbled, "I just never want to be the first one to say it. You guys always laugh at me and say 'It's probably just a blown fuse' or something."

"We should go to the factory," Yumi said. "But one of us should stay behind and try to figure out what he's up to."

Dryly, Ulrich remarked, "He monopolized giant guns. What do you think he's up to?"

"Well, yeah, but one of us should stay behind in case he tries to cause trouble at the school. You know, if someone dies, we can't –"

"Who else is he going to attack? He always targets us. What's he going to do, try to murder Sissi?"

"Actually he does that quite a lot."

"We should let him."

"And what are we going to do if a tank goes for someone, anyway? Stand in front of it?"

Yumi glared for a moment. "One of us always stays behind. Sometimes two of us."

"That's true," Jérémie chimed in. "Why is that?"

They thought about it for a while. "I had to rescue Kiwi one time," Odd suggested finally.

"Yeah. And sometimes I'm at home, because I'm a day student..."

"And then I have to come find you," Ulrich added, and Odd coughed, and Ulrich kicked him again. Yumi laughed. The guns fired in the distance. They were getting closer.

In the end they all went to the factory.

It took about twenty minutes to get there, what with all the running through the woods and skateboarding through the sewers and swinging on ropes, but those twenty minutes somehow failed to prove an obstacle. Jérémie settled himself at the Supercomputer as the other three took the elevator down to the Scanner Room.

"Aelita? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, Jérémie. Is everything all right?"

"No. You know that military fort I told you about? They finally finished it, and X.A.N.A.'s taken over most, if not all, of the weaponry. Presumably the tanks are all attacking the school by now, or else on their way to the factory to kill us."

"Oh, no!"

"...Exactly. Have you noticed anything strange on Lyoko?"

"No, but I'll go check. I'm in the Ice Sector now."

"Okay. Yumi, Odd and Ulrich are on their way to help you. I'll run a scan."

Transfer, scanner, virtualization... Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich landed neatly in the Ice Sector. Aelita came running up a few moments later ("Hi, Princess!"), and at once noticed the pulsations slamming along the ground beneath her feet. She slowed. How had she missed this? Well, she'd been in the tower, doing research! It wasn't like there was anything to do on the rest of Lyoko! The ground beat again, and Aelita said, "Oh!" but no one noticed. They were too busy paying attention to Odd, who was too busy harassing Ulrich.

"You know, Ulrich, I never thought to ask you this, but how come you're dressed like a samurai? Aren't you German?"

"What would you have me wear, Mr. I-use-a-whole-bottle-of-hair-gel-every-morning?"

"Oh, no, it's fine. I just don't get why there's a gnome on your shirt."

"It's an oni!"

"Oh, yeah? Is that German for gnome?"

"You're so uneducated, Odd," Yumi muttered, and Ulrich yelped, "Well, I don't get why you have a tail, but you don't hear me going on about it!"

"It helps me keep my balance!"

"Of course it does. Is that also why you have three fingers?"

Jérémie's voice boomed out, "Come on, you guys, this is serious. I've localized the tower. It's about twenty degrees east of where you are."

With another few snide remarks from Odd and Ulrich, they took off.

Almost immediately, a laser struck Odd's shoulder and sent him tumbling. "Augh! Blocks!"

"Your favorite monster," said Ulrich cheerfully and launched himself at the one in front. Odd leapt to his feet and fired off two laser arrows, both of which missed, and then dodged an ice-beam. He counted: four. Ulrich took one out, leaving three – Odd landed on one and used Impact – two – "C'mon, Yumi, what are you waiting for?!"

Yumi squeaked.

Odd looked up. Hornets. Ten of them. A jet of acid blasted at him, knocking him down, burning, burning...

"Odd! The poison they shoot eats up your life-points!"

"NO FUCKING KIDDING!"

"You've only got five life-points left!"

"Goddammit."

The acid had fizzled away by now. Seven arrows left. Aelita had taken cover behind a great sheet of ice she'd drawn out of the ground, and Ulrich had shattered the remaining two Blocks. Ulrich always had been the best fighter. Yumi struck one of the Hornets with her tessen fan, but missed her next two shots. She was better at defense, anyway, Odd thought. He looked around frantically, trying to figure out the best way to use his remaining arrows. Oh, for Christ's sake.

"Guys. Guys guys guys."

Three Krabs. And a Megatank.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Ulrich shouted, finally taking a hit. "Jérémie, how far are we from the tower?"

"What do you mean, how far are you from the tower? I told you, it's twenty degrees east! You haven't gone anywhere!"

"Why is X.A.N.A. sending so many monsters?!" screamed Yumi. She took a running leap and landed on the back of a Krab, killing it. Another Krab blasted her and she fell.

"I don't know," called Aelita, still cowering behind the ice, "but I've always wondered why he doesn't always do this. He's got a lot of power on Lyoko, you know. I'm lucky he leaves me alone most of the time."

"He's got an army back on Earth, Yumi," said Jérémie. "If there's any time he wants to win, it's now. He can do anything he wants, anywhere in the world."

Ulrich quipped, "It's only the French army."

"Hey!"

"Aw, shut up, Jérémie, if you want to prove your French mettle you can get in here!"

The Megatank, which everyone had somehow forgotten about until now, let out a great sheet of irrepressible red power. Odd was already out of the range of fire, and Ulrich body-checked Yumi out of the way, but Aelita's sheet of ice shattered instantly. She gasped.

"Well, I knew I was going to be the first to go anyway," Odd announced cheerfully. The Megatank rolled forward and let out another blast, and Odd plunged forward, taking the hit for Aelita and releasing all seven of his arrows in midair. By some miracle, two of them found a target, and two of the remaining Hornets disintegrated. Odd vanished.

"Nice going, Odd," Ulrich called appreciatively, even though Odd couldn't hear him. "Way to take one for the team!"

There were two Krabs remaining and three Hornets (Yumi and Ulrich had been working on them steadily), and the Megatank. Aelita backed up and slipped her heel on the edge of the ice-path. The digital world, white and vaguely eerie, spread around her like paper.

"We can't keep this up," Ulrich panted, slashing the legs off another Krab. The Megatank began to charge.

"Yumi, you've got thirty life-points left! Ulrich, seventy!"

"Goddamn, Ulrich, how do you do it?" Odd's voice demanded, tinny through Jérémie's microphone.

Ulrich killed the remaining Krabs as Yumi and Aelita leapt out of the way of the Megatank's attack. "Yumi, you take Aelita and make a break for it. There may be more monsters." Yumi's fan whizzed through not one but two of the Hornets, leaving only one. She caught the fan and cocked her head at Ulrich. "X.A.N.A. is being unpredictable today. I'll handle the Megatank."

"No, Ulrich!"

"What do you mean, no? Even if I lose I'll just be materialized!" Ulrich exploded. "It's not the end of the world unless we fail to get Aelita to the tower! Now GO!"

They went.

"One hit and you're devirtualized," Jérémie warned. "Remember that."

"I thought Megatanks only took fifty points per hit," said Odd, as Ulrich Triangulated the remaining Hornet. The Megatank rolled forward.

"Aw, hell, I don't know. I just make it up as I go along. You ever notice how the points you lose before you're devirtualized never seem to add up to a hundred?"

"Yeah, I did notice that, actually! Hey!"

"Shut up, guys," Ulrich snapped. Then he did something no one had ever done before: He chased the Megatank.

And it turned and began to roll away.

"What's he doing?"

"That's brilliant!"

"What?"

"It can't open! If it opens, he'll stab it in the eye! A Megatank is totally useless when it's closed! Look, it's going to roll straight off the edge!"

The Megatank paused uncertainly at the edge of the ice, and Ulrich shoved it with all its might. It hit the digital void and exploded into a pillar of simulated sun.

Odd and Jérémie cheered.

"How are Yumi and Aelita?" Ulrich asked, not bothering to hide his grin. No one was around to see it, anyway.

"Eh, there was another Megatank, but Yumi took care of it okay. She's low on life-points, though. Aelita's in the tower."

"And taking her time with it, too," Yumi added, running up to Ulrich. "I swear, I don't know why she suddenly turns into a snail whenever she's within, like, five feet of a tower. Do you think she's that slow when she gets inside?"

"God, I hope not. I've almost died about twenty times in the past year. Remember that time with the laughing gas? If she'd taken one more second, we'd all have been dead."

"Calm down, guys, I'm sure she doesn't take her time in there," Jérémie said. "She knows how urgent the situation is." And then: "Return to the past now."

* * *

Back to school, and half the students were missing. This was not standard.

"Do you think a flu or something went around?" Odd whispered.

"I don't know," Jérémie whispered back. "I guess it's possible I messed up the Return. I might have added in additional factors."

"Does it really work like that?"

Jérémie was quiet for a moment. "No."

Mrs. Hertz never showed up to chemistry class, which was the first class of the day, so after twenty-two minutes, Jérémie, Ulrich, and Odd left the classroom. They went to the art room, since Yumi (Ulrich said) had Painting Section on Mondays, but the room was empty except for Milly. Milly cradled herself, rocking back and forth in one of the hard plastic pea-green chairs, her body wracked with sobs. The boys froze. Of course everyone had seen Milly cry before, but never like this. There was pain in her body. After a long, horrible silence, Odd went to her and crouched and asked gently, "Milly, what's wrong?"

"What's WRONG?" she screamed.

Odd flinched. "Is everything... Milly?"

"They're _dead_!" Milly shrieked. "Tamiya and Principal Delmas and Mrs. Hertz and Nicholas and Naomi and – and –"

Odd had gone white as a sheet.

They found Yumi in the courtyard, her eyes dead like cockroaches. She'd found her parents and her little brother as corpses at the breakfast table. Sissi hadn't bothered to put on makeup, and she just stared at Ulrich and Odd as they walked by, her hair in tangles without its yellow headband, her shirt on inside-out. She was uglier than anyone had ever seen her, and she didn't seem to care. Ulrich put his arms around her, and she didn't seem to care about that, either.

"Daddy's coming back though, right? To take care of me?" she whispered helplessly, and Ulrich shuddered.

Jérémie went to find a bench. He felt he had to sit down. The bench was already occupied by Claire, whom he'd never spoken to in his life, but things like that didn't really matter anymore.

After years had passed, Claire said, in a rough voice very unlike her own, "Do you know what happened?"

Yes, Jérémie knew. X.A.N.A. had had tanks.

* * *

**A/N:** I've always wondered why X.A.N.A.'s larger-scale attacks never seemed to kill anybody. Surely he's not _just_ interested in killing these four middle school students, right?

Also, seriously. Some of the situations this school winds up in are RIDICULOUS. A random army base is totally not out of the realm of possibility.

**EDIT:** Also apparently Kadic is supposed to be in a Parisian suburb. Whoops.


End file.
